The invention concerns a sharpening device for knife blades, comprising a base plate with a guiding slot formed as an incision in the base plate for a knife blade to be sharpened, and sharpening rods that are disposed on both sides of the guiding slot such that they can be pivoted against an elastically resilient restoring force, wherein the sharpening rods intersect at a point of intersection in the area of the guiding slot.
A sharpening device of this type, which is disclosed e.g. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,866,569 B2 or DE 10 2006 041 538 B3, is used to sharpen and reshape knife blades that have become blunt through use. In order to prevent damage to the base plate, which is usually produced from plastic material, and to prevent soiling of the knife blade as well as of the material cut by the knife blade, e.g. meat, with separated pieces of plastic, metal cut protection elements may be provided in the inlet area of the guiding slot. The sharpening process is performed by disposing the knife blade on the sharpening rods and sharpening the knife blade along the sharpening rods, which follow the motion of the knife blade along the guiding slot. In order to obtain the desired blade quality and exact shape when sharpening a knife blade, the knife blade must generally be repeatedly guided through the sharpening device.
In order to ensure rapid insertion of the blade of a knife into the guiding slot, the guiding slot is substantially wider, at least in one inlet area of its insertion opening, than the knife blade to be sharpened. For this reason, the knife blade is not guided with perfect stability in the guiding slot. This can impair the sharpening result. The sharpening rods moreover only generate a small resistance to the knife blade. The person guiding the knife during sharpening may therefore get the impression (sharpening impression) that the sharpening effect is only small such that the knife blade is guided through the sharpening device an excessive number of times, which is unnecessary and causes increased wear of the knife blade.
It is the underlying purpose of the invention to provide a sharpening device for knife blades, which eliminates the disadvantages of prior art and, in particular, enables stable guidance of the knife blade during sharpening.